Old Tappan council discusses 'Veteran‑Friendly Municipality' resolution, seeks guardrails for procurement preference

Council members debated a proposed Veteran‑Friendly Municipality program during the March 17 meeting, focusing on how to encourage veteran‑owned businesses to compete for municipal work while protecting procurement fairness.

Council President Boyce outlined the program’s suggested elements: notifying veteran‑owned businesses of bidding opportunities, pursuing a good‑faith target (described in the draft as 6% of municipal contract dollars) for contracts or subcontracting to veteran‑owned firms, and offering possible fee waivers or discounts. Members agreed the goals reflect the borough’s interest in supporting veterans but raised practical concerns about implementation.

Several council members asked whether a veteran‑owned business could be awarded a contract that is not the lowest bid and urged objective criteria to limit preferential awards. One council member said the council should adopt "guard rails"—for example, a percentage threshold above the lowest qualified bid within which a qualified veteran‑owned bidder could still be selected—so the policy is transparent to bidders.

Staff and council noted existing precedents in larger municipalities and suggested reviewing how other jurisdictions implement similar programs. Council asked staff (including Brian and the borough attorney) to draft proposed language with objective criteria and bring it back for further review; members indicated they could support a program fine‑tuned to Old Tappan’s procurement practices.

There was no vote on the resolution March 17; council directed staff to prepare draft wording and research other municipalities’ guardrails for the next meeting.